The Ace Of Spades
by Barnsy
Summary: You win some, lose some. The gang has a poker night and "new-to-the-game" Ryan learns the rules the hard way; a way that will throw the group dynamic onto the table. Troyella, Chaylor, Zekepay!
1. Chapter 1

**A/N- Thankyou to Berry (xghost-writerx) for all her help with writing this. If it wasn't for her randomness and odd sense of humour this would never have gone up and definately wouldn't have sounded this good!! **

**Disclaimer: Sadly i own nothing except "Big T" (although Berry owns him really!)**

**The Ace of Spades - Chapter 1**

"Sugar?" Chad called to their table from the counter of the coffee shop.

"Yes honey" Troy replied sarcastically as Ryan laughed.

"Ha ha, do you want sugar?"

"Please!" He replied as he rolled his eyes. Chad didn't seem to have the ability to remember their orders even though the three friends visited the shop every day after practice and had done for the past three years!

Troy and Chad were world class basketball players and had played for the LA Lakers for the past three years. Ryan choreographed the half time shows for the team. He made sure he scheduled rehearsals at the same time as the boys' practices as Martha and Kelsi all participated in the half time shows. This way Ryan, Troy, Chad, Martha and Kelsi were all free from work at the same time.

Chad slowly ambled between the empty tables towards Ryan and Troy; carefully so as not to trip over the cable that connected the wall to a battered vacuum cleaner and disgruntled janitor. He'd already learned that lesson. The hard way. The way that left him with a distinct coffee smell in his hair and a distinct coffee mess all over the shop floor; much to the pleasure of the cleaning staff!

As he reached the table and put the cups down, Chad recalled "Oh Troy, I invited Big T to the game on Sunday if that's okay?"

"Oh yeah, I was thinking about inviting him but I wasn't sure what you might think!" Troy replied.

He laughed, "What am I gonna do jump up and run screaming from the building?"

"That's what you did when you found that spider in your living room!" Troy mocked, barely able to contain his incessant and oftenfacetious laughter.

"I thought it was... a...a...a cockroach AND I thought we agreed never to speak of it again!" He retorted angrily, his eyes wide, half in fear from the memory, and half in shock that his supposed 'best friend' had actually brought up that episode...again!

"Well, you started it..."

"NO YOU DID"

Knowing he wasn't going to win, Troy backed down, "Sorry, I guess I did start it but it was too funny. It would have been a crime to allow you to forget something that humorous! Especially when it involved you screaming like a little girl" Chad scowled in response, unable to deny that when it came to 'creepy crawlies' he often reverted into 'little girl' mode.

All the while Ryan sat there, bemused as to exactly what the two of them were talking about. "Big T?" he questioned, waiting for one of them to divulge further.

"Oh, he's just a guy we know who played in our U of A basketball team. He was a great guy but had to stop playing cos he had a knee injury that just kept coming back." Troy revealed.

"We haven't seen him in a few years!" Chad added wistfully as he reminisced.

"So what are you guys doing on Sunday then?" Ryan asked expectantly after a short pause in the conversation to sip their coffees.

"Playing poker" Chad replied with a smirk as he snapped out of his spell, "and Troy here is going to lose...again!

"Hey I was ill the last time we played"

"Yeah" he laughed and exclaimed with a smirk "Like you've been ill the last 50 times we've played! Have you ever played, Ryan?"

"No, but I'd like to try though!"

"Oh cool". Chad and Troy carried on reminiscing about "Big T" and although Ryan kept asking questions and hinting that he wanted to play poker with them, he was gradually getting more and more aggravated with their lack of interest. He ground his teeth together and tapped his fingers on the coffee cup rhythmically as he watched his two friends converse.

"So where are you having it?" Ryan quizzed hoping this would be the question that would spark an invite!

"At Troy's" Chad answered quickly.

"Sorry dude, didn't I tell you... Gabi's parents are coming over for the weekend so we can't do it at mine!" Ryan cheered silently in his head...hopefully he would get an invite now!

"Oh" Chad sighed "Well we can't do it at mine... you know what Tay's like when it comes to me gambling. She seems to think that if I'm playing in a place with my possessions I'll end up betting them!"

"Which you would... cos we both know that you can't stand to lose anything!"

"Hmmmm" Chad sighed again.

"How about you do it at my apartment... there's plenty of room and none of our parents will be there! Plus, Sharpay's staying at the moment cos of the whole 'Zeke' thing and Kelsi and Jason live right downstairs."

"He's right dude, it probably is easier to have it there! Thanks Ryan. We'll speak to Gabs and Tay and arrange a time" Troy said happily, at least now it wasn't his fault that the poker night wasn't going to go ahead.

"Yeah, thanks Ryan, I didn't realise you had planned to go out that night!" Chad added.

"Neither did I" he mumbled under his breath in anger.

Troy and Chad sipped their coffees quietly for a few minutes before Troy realised, "Oh, Did you want to come too?"

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**A/N - Hey guys, This is my first fanfic and i would love to hear what you think. I'm not gonna be one of those people that demands reviews to get chapters but if you have the time please review - its taken a whole lot of willpower to put this out to be scrutinised and i'd love to get an idea on what people think!!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N – Thank you to everyone that read, reviewed, favourited and "story alerted" the story, it means everything to me that someone enjoys what I'm writing as much as I enjoy writing it!**

**I don't have anything else to say at the moment, so enjoy! **

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**The Ace of Spades – Chapter 2**

Gabriella, Taylor and Kelsi had spent most of the day driving back and forth across Los Angeles, armed with countless shopping lists for each different aspect of the "Troyella wedding". They had hit as many shops as possible to pick up brochures and samples, all of which had been strewn haphazardly across the dining table. The diary however, was planned to a tee. Gabriella had tediously arranged each appointment according to the schedule of each member of the bridal party. She had subdivided appointments into categories and when the girls were driving between engagements, she had managed to create timetables for each family member, bridesmaid and groomsman of all their meetings.

This was all fine until Sharpay appeared at her apartment late in the afternoon and insisted that she be allowed in to see some of her ideas. Hesitantly Gabriella had allowed her through the doorway; she had thrown her 1000 Balenciaga bag onto the sofa before proceeding to screw up and throw away images that she felt weren't good enough for the wedding. Sharpay then had the cheek to say that she was "so unorganised" before picking up her bag and trotting out of the door leaving paper strewn across every surface and a very disgruntled Gabriella.

Now the three girls were curled up on the sofa: Gabriella, on the left, was trying desperately to type without slopping her glass of wine across the table; Taylor, in the middle, had just started the DVD and was staring avidly at the DVD remote; whilst Kelsi sat with a smirk on her face eagerly watching the antics of her two best friends.

"Argh" Gabi moaned as she slammed her laptop closed, "She is just hell bent on spoiling things. I think me and Troy should just elope and then forget about this. At least then there would be no way of Sharpay ruining everything."

"Awww, but then we couldn't come and you'd have no one to calm your last minute nerves, no one to walk you down the aisle, no one to catch your bouquet, no one to do the embarrassing speech..."

"Tay, we're supposed to be thinking of reasons why she shouldn't elope!" Kelsi replied sarcastically and with a smirk on her face.

"Maybe I just won't invite her to the wedding" Gabriella said defiantly as she put her laptop onto the coffee table and picked up the huge box of chocolates.

"That won't stop her!" Taylor exclaimed as she delved through the box looking for her favourite mint chocolate. After delicately removing the wrapper and with a mouthful of mint heaven she continued, "You know just as well as I do, that she would do anything to be at Troy's side at the wedding."

Gabriella sighed "Hmmmm..."

After a few moments of silence, the peace was broken when Taylor said, "Speaking of Troy..."

"Cos we haven't done that at all today" Kelsi mumbled mockingly under her breath whilst twisting the stem of her empty wine glass between her fingers.

"...When's he due back?" Taylor finished as she threw the wrapper of her second sweet onto the table.

"Your guess is as good as mine. This is Chad and Troy we're talking about, anything could distract them on their way home!" She shook her head and took a long sip of wine, before putting her empty glass on the table.

An awkward silence descended once more, as the girls sat in contemplation.

"Well, on the bright side, we did get lots done today and we organised almost all of the appointments."

"It all seems pretty useless now. Me and Troy are going to turn up at the appointments completely unaware of what services are available from the companies all because of Sharpay. And I was really looking forward to organising all of the samples and cutting the pictures out of the bridal magazines. Now they're all shredded in my bin! It feels like I'm back at square one!"

"You know, sometimes after a day like today, you just need to sit down with your girlfriends, put on a cheesy movie and drink a very large glass of wine whilst working your way through an equally large box of chocolates", Kelsi exclaimed as she was bored of the mindless chit-chat! "And we have three tubs of ice cream in the freezer to devour later"

"Come on Gabs" Taylor grumbled "Let's not be down! You're getting married in a few months to the man you love and you're sitting here complaining! We shouldn't be talking about men and sports and we definitely shouldn't be talking about Sharpay, the social chameleon, and her antics! We should be celebrating your last months as a single woman."

"Well after that heart-felt speech Tay," Gabi laughed, "I guess we should just cheer up and watch this movie!"

Taylor squeezed Gabi's hand and smiled before pressing play and the three friends settled down to a few hours of peace and quiet!

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The three friends sat still, staring at the screen. The end credits of the movie were scrolling across the screen and had been for some minutes, but none of the girls had attempted to halt the movement. Gabriella wasn't sure if she was too comfortable to move or too comfortable to break the silence, but whichever one it was, she wasn't going to be the one to stop it.

The sound of a key fumbling around a lock and the door slamming brought the girls out of their daze with a start. Simultaneously the three friends turned their heads towards the sound and were confronted by a pair of very sweaty boys. The boys laughed almost uncontrollably until Troy caught his breath and said "You know, after the movie has finished people generally switch off the DVD and find something else to do."

Immediately they turned their heads back towards the screen and carried on starring. A few more moments of incessant laughter from Troy and Chad soon turned into an awkward giggle, when they realised that the girls weren't laughing too.

"Dude, what's wrong with them?" Chad whispered not wanting to annoy their obviously angry friends.

"The floor is littered with chocolate wrappers, there are 3 empty tubs of ice cream on the counter and there are 2 empty wine bottles on the table. Something terrible must have happened." Troy exclaimed after taking a few steps closer to the couch.

Gabriella grumbled before clearing her throat; she hadn't spoken in a few hours "Not something, someone"

Troy and Chad looked at each other; their eyes wide with fear as their pupils travelled from the couch to the messed up dining table and back again.

Taylor and Kelsi spoke up, their eyes still fixed on the television screen, "Sharpay"

The boys looked at each other again and shrugged as they silently asked each other the same question _"Well what do we do now?"_

Troy walked around to the front of the sofa, knelt down in front of his fiancée and leaned in, gently pecking her emotionless lips. Instantly Gabriella was knocked out of her spell and, after a few moments, began to slowly respond to the tender kisses.

"Well, we're not gonna get much done now, they'll be at it for hours. Come on Chad, let's leave em alone." Taylor stood up, took her boyfriend's hand and led him towards the front door. "See ya tomorrow Kelsi" she called over her shoulder before slamming the door behind herself.

Kelsi looked over at the pair and thought for a few seconds, desperately hoping for a reason as to why she had to leave. Their kiss was slowly getting more intense, tongues were roaming and hands were wondering. Awkwardly she spoke knowing that she wasn't going to get a reply from either, "I'm gonna head out too guys".

After receiving no response from her otherwise engaged friends, she rolled her eyes and said sarcastically to herself, "Okay Kelsi, I'll see you soon". Troy had now stood up and was leading Gabriella towards the bedroom. Quickly she picked up her handbag, slipped her flip-flops back on and walked out of the front door, trying not to think about what might have happened if she had stayed any longer.

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**A/N - I'm less nervous about this chapter but would still love to hear all your thoughts, so please review and tell me what you think so far.**

**I realise this isn't the most interesting of chapters, but it introduces the female characters and helps the story flow! The drama will start in the next chapter.**

**Also if anyone knows how to play poker and could give me some pointers on the game, could you review or PM to let me know! I'll give you full credit for any ideas!!**

**Thanks,**

**Amy xx**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N - I realise i haven't written anything in a while - doing a 4 day college week and then working on average full time hours at work over the last few months has meant ive had little time for writing - but during my breaks at work i managed to think of some pretty decent ideas for storylines. So now that this stupid amount of work is over, these stories should be posted in the very near future! And i have lots of new chapters in the works for this story so i hope thats okay!**

**FYI, I'm a mod on the zaangels FanForum - come and check it, its a lot of fun! (Link in my profile) Especially for fanfic readers and writers as recently we ran our first fanfic contest, a secret santa and we hope to be holding many more! (link to all of the entries are in my profile!)**

**Finally, thankyou to Lynn (didumissmeofcourseudid) for beta-ing all of my fanfic work! She's an amazing author and if you dont read her work already(which you probably do!), you definately should! **

**Disclaimer: Sadly, I own nothing :(**

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Ch 3 – Ace of Spades

Troy and Chad had spent most of the day at Zeke's restaurant 'Baylor's' – he was trying out a new menu, so had shut-up-shop for the day and asked his two best friends to be his official taste testers. Of course Chad, not one to miss out on eating some of Zeke's heavenly food, had jumped at the chance and together the trio had eaten a sample (or in Chad's case 2 bites short of a whole portion) of each dish! After a long day of eating and drinking, the happy but very full friends, had headed to the Evans' penthouse apartment for their annual Poker game.

"What's this?" Chad asked with a look of confusion on his face as he gestured towards the table.

"Oh, well Daddy brought me the table in Vegas when we went to visit the casino that he owns, ya know as a souvenir. But Sharpay hates it, probably cos it doesn't have any pink on it or something stupid like that, so I had to leave it at Daddy's house. But when I found out that we were doing this, I got it shipped over from Albuquerque, isn't that awesome?" Ryan replied, in a peppy "I know what I'm doing" kind of a voice.

After a couple of seconds of blank staring at the table Chad replied, "No I meant, what's all this stuff?"

"These are my personalised chips – Daddy wanted to make sure that I always knew which chips were mine when we were in Vegas, so he had a set of chips made with my own name and design. Is that okay? I mean I don't want to show off but it's the only ones I have and..."

"No, I meant what are they for?"

"Well, I thought you needed these to play poker?"

"RYAN," a voice shouted from the other side of the apartment. Ryan immediately blushed and mumbled an apology as he turned towards the door to stop Sharpay shouting, but before he could reach it she burst through the door in a flurry of pink. "Have you seen my new Jimmy Choos, I want to get out of the house before those idiots you call friends arrive."

"Urm Shar," he interrupted as he gestured towards Troy, Chad and Zeke.

Sharpay sighed in annoyance before turning around and upon seeing Troy and Chad standing astonished at the table and Zeke staring at her longingly from the couch her jaw dropped, "Ryan, you didn't tell me that we were entertaining," she said as she gritted her teeth in a fake smile whilst attempting to regain her composure before slowly starting to back towards the door, "It's great to see you both, please take a seat. Ryan did you offer your guests a drink?"

Sharpay had spotted her shoes and purse, subtly picked them up and had slid out of the door before Ryan could even reply.

After a few seconds of awkwardness Ryan started conversation again "So erm, I guess I was being a pretty bad host – did you guys want any drinks or anything? I've got some wine in the fridge or some beers – they're not cold but I can put them in now and they'll be fine by the time we play..."

"Urrr... I'll just have a glass of water if that's okay?" Troy mumbled nervously as he scratched the back of his neck. Immediately Chad and Zeke started to laugh, but that was ended abruptly when the hand that was nervously scratching Troy's neck proceeded to whack Chad over the head.

Desperate to please all of his THREE guests, he started precariously stacking bottles in the fridge as he rambled, he'd never had to organise alcohol and such for a party so hadn't thought to put them in the fridge before everyone arrived. "If it's cos they're not cold, they've been left out on the balcony all night. I mean I can put them in the fridge now and they'll be cool by the time we play."

Chad started to explain after he'd finished grumbling about the pain from the slap Troy had just given him "Troy won't be having any alcohol this evening – the last time that we played and he drank, he knocked over the table when he got up to 'pee' and then proceeded to stuff all the money into his pockets before running out of the door. Needless to say he didn't win that night, but I must say I made quite a tidy profit."

"Hey it's not my fault that it fell over. I can't help that you decided to do shots before the game and I needed to, ya know, go to the bathroom – you know that I can't handle hard liquor and maybe if you hadn't provided such a shitty table that can't even hold a pack of cards without collapsing we wouldn't be having this talk right now." Chad looked at Troy accusingly, before he continued in a quieter voice "And the leg was faulty anyway."

"That's right, Troy, blame the inanimate object," said Gabriella with a smirk on her face as she walked into the living area of the Evans apartment with Taylor.

"What! It wasn't me," he argued.

"Hmmm, sure it wasn't," she said sarcastically as she walked towards Ryan and hugged him in greeting. "Thanks for having us over today Ryan, you know Taylor hates them gambling at her house and well, my parents are visiting for the weekend and we're going to tell them about the wedding so we want to try and keep everything with them as sweet as possible."

"That's cool – it's nice to have everyone hanging out here together. So, when are you going to tell your parents?"

"Oh, well hopefully tomorrow. As long as everything between now and then goes well."

"Oh that's cool, well ya know help yourselves to drinks – there's wine in the fridge if you want it."

"Thanks Ry, but we're fine at the moment. Just chill out and enjoy yourself – you've never been to one of these games before have you? So enjoy yourself – you don't need to be "the best host" around us," Taylor said kindly.

"Thanks girls you're the best. I'll get you some good seats at the next Lakers game." he said seriously before turning to walk away.

Taylor laughed, "Urm Ryan – Gabi's engaged to the captain and MVP of the Lakers and I'm dating Chad who... also plays for them... if we can't get good seats for the games then something has gone very wrong somewhere."

"Sorry! That's just my standard answer when people say nice things to me, so who else are we waiting for?"

"Urm, Jase, Kelsi and Big T. God, you're really getting excited about this aren't you?" Taylor recited.

"Hell yeah, I'm finally going to become one of the gang."

"You were always one of the gang Ry," Gabriella cooed, "Even in high school when your sister forced you to dislike us."

"Thanks girls, so who is Big T anyway cos Chad and Troy kept going on about him at the coffee shop the other day and I have no idea who he is? I want to know a little bit about him before I randomly let him into my apartment."

"He's this guy that was on the U of A basketball team with Chad and Troy. They are both obsessed by him. I don't really know why - from what Troy's told me, he's nothing special." Gabriella looked disgruntled as she replied.

"Nothing special!" Taylor said as her mouth fell open. "He was the best person on the team – if it wasn't for that terrible knee injury he'd probably be like the David Beckham of basketball."

"He wasn't that good – it's not like he was captain or MVP," Gabi argued before adding a little quieter, "and he's not hot enough to be the David Beckham of basketball."

"I don't think he's too bad." Taylor replied as Gabriella started to laugh.

"Well you are going out with Chad so I suppose anything is an improvement," she teased her best friend as she failed to keep a straight face and started giggling once more.

"Heyyyyyy!" she moaned before shrugging her shoulders and joining in with her best friend's incessant giggling.

"You girls are so mean...." but before he could continue, the doorbell was heard and Ryan rushed off only to return a few minutes later with Kelsi and Jason walking arm-in-arm. Jason sat down at the table with Troy and Chad whilst Kelsi joined the girls.

"Do you know why Sharpay is sitting on the floor in the lift just going up and down the building constantly?"Kelsi asked as she stood with her two best friends at the side of the room, whilst their boyfriends argued at the table. Ryan just hovered in between unsure if he should join in the girls' conversation or the boys' argument.

"She's in a bad mood cos she had to go out for the afternoon. Apparently there's a Gossip Girl marathon on TV today and she couldn't miss it," he chipped in during a brief pause in the argument.

"Oh, she could have stayed – You love Gossip Girl don't you Troy?" Chad chipped in to the conversation with a huge toothy grin plastered on his face.

"Dude, do you just live to embarrass me? And it was one episode that I watched and that was only because I couldn't find the remote," Troy argued back.

Jason added, "You love it, you even missed hanging out with us once and when we came to find out why, you were watching it."

"Don't you start Cross, we both know that you NEVER miss an episode of Oprah." Troy argued.

"I was just flicking channels and I thought I saw someone I knew."

"Yeah sounds about right, since when did you know anyone that deserves to go on a famous talk show?"

As the argument continued, Kelsi asked quietly "Do they always argue like this?"

"Pretty much yeah," Gabi said.

"But they love each other really," Taylor and Gabi said in unison.

The hustle and bustle in the living room was quickly interrupted when 3 sharp knocks were heard coming from the door. The gang looked confused as they looked around, and Chad stood up and started counting everyone before sitting down abruptly and frowning when he realised that everyone in the group were here.

"Who's that?" Chad whispered to the group, as they all looked around in confusion.

"Are you expecting anyone?" Taylor asked.

"Noooo..." Ryan whispered nervously.

"Do you know who it is Jase?" Kelsi asked.

"No." The doorbell rang again as the gang looked around. "There's definitely someone at the door."

"Who could it be?" Gabi asked.

"I don't know?" Troy replied as the doorbell rang again.

"That's three times they've rung the bloody thing, they definitely want us to answer it." Zeke said.

"Should I go?" Taylor asked nervously.

"No, I and Troy will go – we're the basketball players," Chad said as he dragged a disgruntled Troy to his feet and towards the door. The rest of the gang huddled in the archway between the living room and the hallway – anxious to know who the mysterious guest was.

Chad grabbed an umbrella from the coat stand 'just in case' as Troy opened the door. In front of the pair stood a tall, thin, pale man. He wore a white shirt that was tucked into the black dress pants that were far too high-waisted and caused the bottom of the trousers to be a few inches from the ground so that his pristine white socks were revealed. The bow tie that he wore was wonky and the pockets of the shirt he wore were filled with pens, each clipped on in height order and with great precision. His black, thick rimmed glasses were taped on the nose section to hold them together and his outfit was finished off with a sticker that rested just above his breast pocket which read, "Hello, My Name Is Timothy."

"Big T!"

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**Please review, it took a lot of motivation to write this chapter and id love to know if its appreciated at all :)**

**I will be updating this story soon - i know exactly what to write in the next chapter and its going to be ready soon!**


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